The story of young François Coty started in Paris, at the end of the century; and the first perfumes he created were “La Rose Jacqueminot”, “Ambre Antique”, and “L’Origan”. 
 In 1907, Coty hired seven representatives who made his company famous in France. In the same year, he founded his first laboratory in Neuilly. The business was so successful, that a year later Coty opened his first factory in Suresnes, near Paris. 
       In 1910, he inaugurated his first office abroad – in Moscow, near Djamagorofa No. 33 – and  two years later, another one followed, in London. François Coty was the first to notice the benefits of tax-free sales and opened a store in the French port Le Havre. 
 Coty started to create whole series of perfumes. And besides them, he was also selling colognes, body balms, absorbing powders. Coty took all these products to America. He knew that in Paris he could never become more than a “salesman who makes perfumes” – but beyond Atlantic, he had the chance to conquer a huge market. 
       Sales in America were spectacular. Coty became a multimillionaire – his name was famous in the entire world. The coronation of his success was represented by the foundation, in 1913, of Coty Incorporated – in New York, on Fifth Street, No. 714. 
       Coty is now the most important cosmetic company in the United States and Canada. Coty Group Worldwide has branches on five continents, and more than three thousand employees. The central bureau is in New York – but the Coty perfumes are produced in the United States, Spain, Germany, Great Britain and Holland. Today, the best selling perfumes marked Coty are Exclamation, Adidas Woman, Vanilla Fields, Chanson D’Eau, Masumi, Crossmen, Adidas Man and Adidas Adventure.

       People have always been interested in clothes. Making them is a craft as old as time, but in no way easier today than it was in the beginning. Every year, a new generation of designers leaves academies and begin their search for new shapes, new colours, new lines and new ideas. Making clothes has become a philosophy.  
      When it comes to clothing, the 20th century is usually attributed to the French designers. They were the ones who separated couture from haute couture. The modern industrial boom not only led to the democratisation of garment, but also “anglicised” the language of fashion. To match the terms of couture and haute couture, those who were creating fashion became known as “designers” and “great designers”. But in the end, all designers (either “great” or not) are doing the same thing: clothes. The only difference lays in the talent with which they are doing their job. 
      After all, what are clothes? This fundamental question was the very departure point for one of the most impressive, visionary fashion designers in the second half of 20th century: Issey Miyake. 
      Issey Miyake belongs without any doubt to the category of “great designers”. He graduated the Royal Art College of London in 1993 – and in the same year, he was granted the famous Legion d’Honneur in Paris. Miyake is interested in discovering the intimate nature of clothing, in deciphering its functions, in analysing accessories from different parts of the world. He has always tried to reconcile function and aesthetics – by creating easy-to-wear clothes, adapted to the lifestyle of men and women in an industrial age. Miyake knows that today, people live a totally different live than in the past, therefore have a different lifestyle, a different vision of the world. They work and live in a different environment. They move faster. They pass from one social category to another and are able to change their social identity several times in a day. Miyake met all these realities while remaining an idealist – who transforms human body in something as simple as a drawing. 
      Those who wear his clothes are not necessarily perfectly shaped. They are young people as well as old ones; they are from East as well as from West. Few of them have the perfection of statues. However, they have all ideal bodies, from Miyake’s point of view. Because he knows that each of them is emotionally and intellectually unique. And so are we. And so are you.